A judge noted in the file that Khawam "has attached letters from Gen. David H. Petraeus averring to her ability to appropriately parent the child, and is prepared to present corroborating testimony at trial."

And in court documents filed by Kelley's sister Natalie Khawam, she name-drops both Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- who both have ties to a Providence, RI, lawyer/lobbyist who loaned a whopping $300,000 to Khawam.

Khawam claimed in a July 12 letter to her estranged husband that she took their son "on vacation last year to Martha Vineyard," where their son and "I had a great time at the DSCC [Democratic Senate Campaign Committee] event."

You're Not Going To Believe The Latest Developments In The Petraeus Sex Scandal

Here's How The FBI Nailed Paula Broadwell For Harassing Jill Kelley In The Petraeus Sex Scandal The Petraeus scandal has become focused on Jill Kelley, the mysterious Tampa woman who reported harassing emails from David Petraeus' mistress to the FBI, leading to the investigation that ultimately cost the CIA director his job.

Several reports have shown that Kelley is a socialite who made her way into the highest of circles at MacDill Air Force Base — the home of U.S. Central Command.

Just how tapped-in was Kelley to the top-ranking officers of U.S. Central Command?

Every year, U.S. Special Operations Command hosts an "Army Ball" in Tampa, FL. The intent of the ball is "to host a prestigious, enjoyable event to celebrate the Army’s birthday," according to the operations order.

A draft of the VIP invite list for the 2011 Army Ball shows Kelley and her husband alongside a slew of top-level military officers in U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, as well as politicians and other civic leaders.

The list gives you a sense of the kind of social circle that Jill Kelley had made her way into, as an "unpaid social liaison" at U.S. Central Command.

Dozens of flag officers are on the VIP list with the Kelleys, including General John Allen, who is now under FBI investigation regarding 20,000 to 30,000 "potentially inappropriate" pages of emails between him and Kelley.

Civilians on the VIP list (aside from spouses) are put down as "civic leaders," and they're mostly mayors, city council members, U.S senators, members of Congress, university presidents, heads of commerce departments — even a Medal of Honor recipient.

And she wasn't just going to the military's parties — the generals were coming her home as well.

A report from the Tampa Bay Times notes that the Kelleys' mansion became the "place to be seen" for high-ranking officers. The Kelleys even hosted Petraeus' goodbye party at their house.

Interestingly, the first in the series of anonymous harassing emails Paula Broadwell sent to Kelley referred to Kelley socializing with generals. Broadwell "suggested it was inappropriate and should stop," according to a source who spoke with NBC News.

As for the Army Ball, there were 45 General-level officers on the list (most were with their spouses, and some were retired), from the USA, Great Britain, Australia and Canada.

Here's a sampling of the names on the VIP invite list with the Kelleys, and their roles at the time (April 2011):

The woman revealed to have been carrying on an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus lost her driver's license in a Washington, D.C., park recently, sources tell U.S. News.

A Maryland National Capital Park Police spokesman confirmed that a jogger found a North Carolina license in Rock Creek Park belonging to Paula Broadwell. Park Police planned to hold it for 90 days, per policy, and then send it back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The Park Police also alerted the FBI, says Bill Kellogg, a spokesman for the Park Police. The FBI did not initially return calls for comment on the report.

['All In': Petraeus Now Known for Different Surge]

Broadwell's attorney, Robert F. Muse, confirmed that Broadwell, a North Carolina resident, lost her driver's license in the park.

The FBI searched Broadwell's Charlotte, N.C., home Monday for at least four hours. It is unclear if Broadwell was home at the time, though she is not mentioned in any subsequent reporting about the search.

Muse did not immediately return calls regarding Broadwell's current whereabouts.

Broadwell allegedly sent threatening E-mails to Jill Kelley, which sparked a subsequent FBI investigation, and eventually led to Petraeus' resignation from the CIA.

The woman revealed to have been carrying on an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus lost her driver's license in a Washington, D.C., park recently, sources tell U.S. News.

A Maryland National Capital Park Police spokesman confirmed that a jogger found a North Carolina license in Rock Creek Park belonging to Paula Broadwell. Park Police planned to hold it for 90 days, per policy, and then send it back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The Park Police also alerted the FBI, says Bill Kellogg, a spokesman for the Park Police. The FBI did not initially return calls for comment on the report.

Karl Rove ?@KarlRove With @paulabroadwell at the NCSL Leaders Forum this weekend in Washington. pic.twitter.com/kWGXLBUD 11 Jun 12 ReplyRetweetFavoriteMaybe that tweet from June is nothing. Only, there's this tweet from yesterday, too.

Rupert Murdoch ?@rupertmurdoch Petraeus affair has not been a secret for months. Must be more to story. 10 Nov 12 ReplyRetweetFavoriteYeah, I'm sure that's nothing, too. Vague enough to be suggestive, but too vague to actually confirm anything like what Paula Broadwell and Karl Rove might have been talking about before that cute little picture of him was posted.

And then there's this little nugget from The Daily Beast:

“Now I don’t know if a lot of you heard this,” she replied, “but the CIA annex had actually—had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that’s still being vetted.”

(It’s possible Broadwell was confusing details broadcast ealier that day by Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffen, who’d reported that three of the Libyan attackers were briefly held at the annex—not the consulate—before being turned over to a local militia.)

What the heck was that about? Here's the video of that:

And then there's this:

As her answer continued, Broadwell seemed to speak on behalf of Petraeus: “The challenging thing for General Petraeus is that in his new position he is not allowed to communicate with the press. So he’s known all of this, they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya. Within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening.”

Broadwell, herself a former military intelligence officer, began her discussion of the attack by referencing an exclusive Fox News report that had run that day. But while dramatic details of that story were later fiercely disputed by government officials, she relayed only parts of that story—like the attempt to send backup from a special-operations force—that were finally confirmed.

The Fox News story referenced there is the story that spawned the "Obama lied; people died" meme they tried to smear President Obama with during the election. Their report claimed that despite requests by the CIA for backup, they were denied. That sent Fox News talkers into a tizzy about how terrible this administration was and how the blood of our diplomats was on their head.

Who else pimped that story all over Fox News, do you think? None other than Karl Rove.

ROVE: Yeah, you don't want to send people into harm's way without knowing what's on the ground. But you can at least begin to move assets to the fight -- to the conflict. You could have a C-130 gunship orbiting off of -- off of Benghazi, waiting for clarity. You can put a QRF, a quick rapid force into position. You could have them airborne. You can have them out there. The president says he ordered support to be given and, yet, support wasn't given.

Except as we know, support was given.

And then there is the matter of the FBI investigation itself, allegedly sparked by a complaint made by Jill Kelley, who is a State Department liason to JSOC. Kelley, who is reported to be close to the general and his wife, received what she believed to be "harassing emails" from Broadwell and reported them to the FBI, who opened an investigation.

There is one final unrelated thing: Eric Cantor was tipped off two weeks ago by a "whistleblower" about the investigation and the possibility that Broadwell had access to national security information she should not have had. My calendar says two weeks ago would have been the very same weekend that Karl Rove was on Fox and Broadwell was giving speeches where she appeared to be speaking for Petraeus, or was at least privy to information about Benghazi that fed into the Fox News narrative they so desperately tried to build.

Politico:

But the revelation of Cantor’s role in the scandal - and the emergence of an FBI whistle-blower - raises dramatic new questions about how the bureau conducted what was clearly a hugely sensitive problem, both in terms of the FBI’s relationship with the CIA and what it could mean for the highly esteemed Petraeus. It also raises the stakes for the political fallout surrounding the scandal. Top CIA officials have been asked to brief members of the House Intelligence Committee next week on what happened and how the case unfolded. “I was contacted by an F.B.I. employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain [FBI] Director Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security,” Cantor said in a statement.

There's an ongoing FBI investigation sparked by a report of harassing emails to an official in a very sensitive position. At the end of October, a Republican Congressman (also former military) is contacted by a whistleblower who expresses concerns about national security leaks. That Congressman (Reichert) notifies Cantor's chief of staff (not Cantor), who then contacts Mueller about it.

Then, silence. Nothing happens until the day after the election. If I had to guess, I'd say there was some plot afoot to leak national security tidbits in order to embarrass the president and also the FBI. Because you know, the FBI is part of Eric Holder's responsibilities, and Eric Holder could possibly be the most hated government official on the planet next to Barack Obama in right-wing land.

How does the absolute belief that Mitt Romney would be elected play into the whole thing? Why the silence until after the election, when suddenly the story blows out three days after the president is re-elected? How might it have played differently if Mitt Romney had been elected? Was John Boehner ever notified? What about the Senate Intelligence Committee? Were they notified? If not, why not?

Oh look, the first inklings this will be blown into a Very Big Deal are right here in the Washington Post article about the FBI investigation:

Still, the timing of Petraeus’s departure, and the apparent decision by the FBI to withhold information about its probe, is already coming under question and criticism from Capitol Hill.

Questions, questions, questions. But of course, it could all just be one gigantic coincidence, too.

Bonus: The New Yorker's Jane Mayer has questions too.

Update: Added information about the effort to reach out to Bob Woodward by Romney allies regarding the Benghazi attacks. Woodward appeared on Hannity's show November 7th to talk about it, and said he was unimpressed with the quality of the information.

Update 2: According to the Chicago Tribune, a close friend of Gen. Petraeus says the affair ended four months ago, which would be at about the same time the emails were sent from his Gmail account to Kelley

Something is rotten in Benghazi-Petraeus. But we cannot find the rot in these two tragedies because the information is classified and the administration remains silent at the pleasure of the press.

Benghazi first: The CIA Libyan Chief of Station within 24 hours of the Tuesday September 11 attack on our consulate cabled CIA headquarters that it was carried out by militants and not in reaction to an obscure American-made internet video that criticized Islam’s Prophet Muhammed.

Yet on Friday, September 14, Director of Central Intelligence, General David Petraeus, ignored his chief boot-on-the-ground and briefed the House Intelligence Committee, as described by Vice-Chairman Ruppensberger (D-Md), that the attack was “spontaneous.”

What happened in those two days that the causal theory turned 180 degrees? Did the now discarded theory belong only to Director of Central Intelligence Petraeus and the CIA? Because on that same day, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chief Vice Chairman Admiral James Whinnefeld, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that they believed the attack was premeditated.

The administration had time to co-ordinate the two inconsistent assessments. It did not. On Sunday, September 16, UN Ambassador Susan Rice fulfilled the quinfecta of all Sunday shows during which she vigorously backed the CIA/ Petraeus position: “What happened…in Benghazi…was a direct result of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated, which the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.” (ABC Jake Tapper) The press reported the CIA provided her “talking points,” a job usually reserved for a press secretary.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was nowhere to be seen or heard that day. Her spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, has steadfastly deferred to others when asked whether the video was the cause.

The White House had 9 more days to gather facts to decide which theory was supported by the evidence. It did not. Or it chose not to tell us.

Nine days later in his speech to the United Nations, President Obama was still accusing the video of being the proximate cause where he referred to it six times, declaring “a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.” This discredited claim was made notwithstanding Libyan President Mohammad Magarief’s telling NBC on that very day that the attacks “had nothing to do with” the video. Did these two presidents not communicate during this time? Or did President Obama ignore the president-on-the-ground’s assessment?

For some reason DCI Petraeus backed the Obama unsupported theory that the video made the attackers do it rather than his own Chief of Station’s assessment that it was a planned military attack.

Why do the shifting stories and misplaced theory of cause matter?

Because if an administration pushes a political agenda that applauds the killing of Bin Laden as the ultimate act for eradicating the radical Islamic threat, then that same administration ignores its Ambassador’s urgent pleas for more security for fear it will appear Bin Laden’s demise was not the answer to that threat. Our country’s chief spy is supposed to know which theory is held up by the evidence.

What did FBI Director Robert Mueller know and when did he know it? And whom did he tell?

-

Having pointed out the context of Petraeus’ strange support of that now refuted theory, we must turn to the bizarre circumstances of his resignation as DCI after the FBI discovered he had an affair with his biographer.

Something is terribly amiss for those of us steeped in federal criminal law, national security, and Congressional protocol. We have been told that the president knew nothing of the investigation until post-election Wednesday.

Similarly, the relevant Congressional committees said they either heard about it on television (Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein) or just a few hours before the announcement. Yet policy and the law—depending on the gravity of the facts--call for the FBI to inform the Intelligence Committees and the White House whenever there is a concern about any person involved in national security.

When there is merely a minor security concern, for example if a bad actor happens to be at the same dinner party in a foreign country as a travelling Member of the Intelligence Committee, long standing policy establishes that the Intelligence Committees should be informed. But the Petraeus matter was “significant.” Thus the law requires notice to the relevant Congressional Members. What did FBI Director Robert Mueller know and when did he know it? And whom did he tell?

If notice were the only breach of law or protocol it might not mean much, except bad judgment. But the entire scenario of Petraeus’ nomination and confirmation does not compute, and implicates an additional level of incompetence or willful blindness.

Consider: When Petraeus was nominated for DCI, there were “rumors” in Afghanistan about the duo and the extent of her access to him, according to well-respected foreign policy expert and Fox News national security analyst K.T. McFarland, who was on the ground there at the time.

Who headed Petraeus’ background investigation? The first time I had a background check, the FBI asked my neighbors whether I was a good mother. They also asked whether I was a lesbian.

These people are not shy about asking sensitive sex-related questions.

Consider: In the questionnaire a nominee must submit for the confirmation process, there is that final catch-all question. “Is there anything in your past that could embarrass the president?” That’s when the delicate affair should have been discussed by the Army General War Hero. Having an embarrassing issue does not disqualify the nominee. It means more investigation needs to be done to determine whether the conduct really is a problem. Did Petraeus reveal the relationship at that time?

Consider: All candidates for CIA employment must take a polygraph. Doesn’t the nominee for DCI have to do so also? And that nasty little catch-all embarrassment question is always asked by the polygrapher. Usually, the polygraphee is thinking back to college and confessing to smoking pot. In 2011, it would not take a sterling memory for Petraeus to remember a 2011 affair.

Why is the administration’s handling of the affair significant? Because sloppy vetting of the country’s top spy and not giving timely notice to the oversight committees was either gross incompetence or a deliberate evasion of law. Or the sticky situation was used to pressure the DCI into backing the White House theory. Or there was a much bigger secret at Benghazi that all involved were (and still are ) trying to cover up.

The two seemingly unrelated incidents are now merged. Just days before Petraeus is scheduled to testify about the first, he resigns because of the second, and cancels his Congressional appearances. The House and Senate have the authority to subpoena him. It is up to them and the media to find the rot.

Victoria Toensing is a former Chief Counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, where among other assignments she created the anti-terrorism section. She is a founding partner of diGenova & Toensing.

As whole baskets of dirty laundry are newly aired in the ongoing scandal that prompted the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus, attention is increasingly focusing on a Florida woman named Jill Kelley.

Petraeus, a former Army General and the architect of U.S. strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned from his CIA post after admitting to an affair, allegedly with his biographer Paula Broadwell. It now appears that Kelley played a key role in bringing their relationship to light. The Tampa-based military liaison and longtime friend of the Petraeus family reportedly reached out to a contact at the FBI after receiving email threats from Broadwell.

Now, the 37-year-old Kelley has been implicated in a possibly inappropriate relationship with a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The FBI is currently investigating a slew of emails between her and Marine Corps General John Allen – “20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails” exchanged between 2010 and 2012, messages that have been called “flirtatious” by a senior defense official. Allen was poised to become Supreme Allied Commander Europe this week, but his nomination has been put on hold in light of the widening scandal. Both he and Kelley, who has retained a lawyer and a team of crisis management advisers, have denied any wrongdoing.

Fast Facts about Jill Kelley: •Works as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. (via Business Insider) •Lives with her husband Scott and three young daughters in a $1.2 million mansion on Bayshore Boulevard in South Tampa. (via Tampa Bay Times) •Has been friends with the Petraeus family from the time when David Petraeus was leader of the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base between 2008 and 2010. (via Gawker) •Met the Petraeuses through her charitable work for military families in Tampa. (via CBS)

Brian Blanco / Reuters

The house belonging to Jill Kelley, a friend of the Petraeus family, is seen on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, Florida November 12, 2012. •Was a frequent guest at U.S. Central Command functions. •Regularly kept in touch with Petraeus after he became the commander of the Afghanistan war effort and moved away from Tampa. The two exchanged emails and instant messages on a daily basis, though the messages were not romantic in nature and were sent using monitored accounts. (via AP) •Bragged that she had been named “honorary consulate general to South Korea” in September.

(MORE: Petraeus Scandal Ensnares Top Afghan Commander) •Her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, is a prominent cancer surgeon at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Fla. •Known to host glamorous parties at her home in Tampa. •Has hired Abbe Lowell, one of the attorneys who defended John Edwards earlier this year on corruption charges.

(TWO-MIN BIO: Paula Broadwell: Petraeus’ Biographer and Alleged Mistress) •Also hired Judy Smith, a Washington, D.C. public relations executive and a former spokesperson for George W. Bush, who also represented Monica Lewinsky after her affair with Bill Clinton. •Kelley appeared on the Food Network’s reality program Food Fight in 2003. (via St. Petersburg Times) •Grew up in Philadelphia after her family emigrated from Lebanon and opened a Middle Eastern restaurant. (via Philadelphia Inquirer) •Her father, John Khawam, was a renowned organist in Lebanon. •Has a twin sister, Natalie Khawam, who was involved in a custody dispute with ex-husband Grayson Wolfe over their four-year-old son. Both Petraeus and Allen are said to have intervened in the custody battle, writing letters on behalf of Khawam (allegedly at Kelley’s behest) to reverse a judge’s ruling that denied her custody. In the ruling, the judge supposedly called Khawam a “psychologically unstable person.” (via New York Post)

QUOTES BY: •“We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family’s privacy and want the same for us and our three children.” (A statement released Nov. 11 by the Kelley family) •“I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m the victim here. But it still feels awful.” (In a telephone conversation with her brother David Khawam, a N.J. lawyer, via Washington Post)

QUOTES ABOUT: •Regarding her relationship with Petraeus: “They attended events together. They spend Christmas at each other’s homes. There was nothing untoward. No affair-like thing between them. They were strictly friends.” (Steven Boylan, Petraeus’s public affairs officer in Iraq in 2007 and 2008, via Washington Post) •“She would say he was kind of like a grandpa to her girls.” (an unnamed friend of Kelley’s, via The Telegraph)

TAMPA — In late September, a U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and the head of the Central Intelligence Agency sent letters to a court in Washington, D.C., testifying that a single mom in Tampa named Natalie Khawam was fit to parent her 4-year-old son.

Gen. John R. Allen praised Khawam — the twin sister of Jill Kelley, the woman who sparked an FBI investigation that exposed retired Gen. David Petraeus' affair — for her "maturity, integrity and steadfast commitment to raising her child." Petraeus told the court Khawam "dotes on her son and goes to great lengths — and great expense — to spend quality time with him."

The court had a different opinion.

"Ms. Khawam appears to lack any appreciation or respect for the importance of honesty and integrity in her interactions with her family, employers, and others with whom she comes in contact," a judge wrote after a litany of hearings and psychological evaluations. "The court fully expects that Ms. Khawam's pattern of misrepresentations about virtually everything, including the most important aspects of her life, will continue indefinitely."

She was more than $3 million in debt, records show. She had blown through four jobs in five years and sued a former employer for sex harassment. She had had three failed engagements, left her new husband and moved in with her sister where she quickly began hobnobbing with military brass and others in Tampa's elite circles.

What moved the top government brass to go to bat for a woman the court said suffers from "severe" psychological deficits? The answer can be found in Jill Kelley's social climb in the last decade, since she and her surgeon husband moved south from Philadelphia and found a niche hosting lavish parties for military brass from MacDill.